special k

2009: The Verdict

2010-01-01T12:38:00.003+13:00

What did you do in 2009 that you'd never done before? Wore high heels to work on a consistent basis. Made bread.
Did you keep your new years' goals, and will you make more for next year?
No, but not because I didn't work at them. And no, I don't think I will. I would like to have a year without trying to do anything.
Did anyone close to you die?
Yes.
What countries did you visit?
Um, I barely left the city all year, except for this time, and that time.
What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
Time to craft.
What date from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Sorry, there isn't one.
What was your biggest achievement of the year?
The few stories I wrote that were actually really good, like this one and that one.
What was your biggest failure?
Not convincing certain people that even though there was a recession on and money was tight, spending $1500 on an outrageous great idea I had was a worthwhile.
Did you suffer illness or injury?
What haven't I had this year? There are the umpteen colds (I have one now), the viral labyrinthitis, a gastro bug, etc.
What was the best thing you bought?
Sukin products. Especially the conditioner. I was hoping that I could have said "an awesome home for me and my family" but alas, no.
Whose behaviour merited celebration? Ange's. I would never have survived a year like she's had and still been able to make stupid jokes about it. Yey for Sweeney's Mama!
Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed? Those clowns at Copenhagen. Vendors with closed tenders and buyers with big chequebooks.
Where did most of your money go? Savings. *yawn*
What did you get really, really, really excited about? Buying that house in J'ville. Then having it ripped out from my grasp. And Harper's first steps and words (gone, blankey, milk, in Rotorua were pretty amazing.
What song will always remind you of 2009? This Tornado Loves You by Neko Case. It pretty much sums up the year's weather too.
What do you wish you'd done more of? Making stuff, like clothes. Walking in the hills.
What do you wish you'd done less of? Procrastinating.
Did you fall in love in 2009? I guess so, because I do love our backyard.
What did you want and get? A stunning opportunity to earn a bit more dosh.
What did you want and not get? Where to start. Let's just say Nepal.

Tui

2009-12-02T20:43:00.004+13:00

Every night for the past week, the same tui has been sitting outside in the pohutukawa and singing as it gets dark. I know it's the same tui because it sings the same song, it's quite melodic and a little melancholic, not like the broken robot noises other tui make.
Good night, sweet tui.

Five of my favourite things about our new home

2009-11-11T19:23:00.005+13:00

1. Harper's pumpkin seedling. He waters it in the evening with his wee watering can, but gets impatient and empties it out over the leaves.

2. The improvised bbq, made from a neighbour's discarded bricks and the grill and plate from Ange's old bbq. We had everyone over on Saturday evening and I still had the delicious smell of wood smoke in my hair the next morning.
3. The orange carpet. We didn't realise just how orange until we moved in. Before that, we'd only seen the floors covered in drop cloths (the landlord was repainting).

4. My garden. In a few hours, Harper and I went on a mission to collect up everything we needed to build a raised bed. We went to Lower Hutt to collect barley straw and lucerne hay, got the boxing, collected some old tyres, got four bags of commercial compost, snuck next door when the neighbours were out and scraped all the grass clippings off their just-cut lawn, and emptied it all into this 2m x 1m plot with our homemade compost and some sheep pellets. It now contains red onions, beetroot and peas. In tyres, I have agria spuds, H's pumpkin, and four cherry toms. Grow you good things!

5. Harper and Sweeney's swing. Grandad Derek was just up from Christchurch, so after collecting the required materials, he spent the afternoon putting it togethe. When Sweeney came over that evening, we tested it out and taught Sweeney how to swing. Harper's still a bit little, but he likes pushing it. I sat on it yesterday and nearly broke the branch, so alas, no swinging for this monkey.

Make it night, already

2009-11-11T16:58:00.003+13:00

I'm a bit tired of seeing those two sleepy looking teenagers from Twilight everywhere.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Is it just me, or is there something wrong with this?

2009-11-04T11:51:00.003+13:00

Mom: What did that little girl say to you?
Daughter: She said... that I'm ugly.
Mom: Well, you tell her that her mom is ugly. And then you punch her in the face, that's what you do. And then I'll go and punch her mom in the face! That's what you do!
From the very excellent Overheard in New York.

Cops Reporter: They want a feature story about this community trick-or-treating event. I’ve got better things to cover on Halloween.
Business Reporter: Like kids getting run over.
Cops Reporter: Let’s hope so.
From the also awesome Overheard in the Newsroom.

News story of the Week - man doesn't get sex, sues deodorant company

2009-11-03T10:30:00.002+13:00

The makers of Lynx deodorant are being sued by an Indian man, who claims he used their products for seven years but failed to attract the opposite sex.
Vaibhav Bedi, 26, wants Unilever to compensate him $91,000 for the "depression and psychological damage" caused by a lack of any "Lynx effect", the Daily Record reports.
Some adverts for Lynx - marketed as Axe in India - show beautiful women seemingly becoming entranced by those who use the products.
"The company cheated me because in its advertisements, it says women will be attracted to you if you use Axe ... I used it for seven years but no girl came to me," Mr Bedi said in his court petition.
A New Delhi court has accepted half-used body washes, shampoos, anti-perspirants and hair gels for forensic testing in the case.
Unilever has refused to comment on the lawsuit, but Mr Bedi's lawyer Ram Jethmalani has urged the company to settle out of court.
"There is no data to substantiate the supposition that unattractive and unintelligent men don't attract women," the Daily Record quoted him as saying.
"In fact, some of the best looking women have been known to marry and date absolutely ghoulish guys."
Thanks, Stuff.co.nz and Sydney Morning Herald

Five things about moving house

2009-10-29T10:33:00.005+13:00

We have moved house. We are no longer residents of the cul-de-sac. Instead, we live on a vertiginous hillside, in an army green house, with a spectacular view of Makara Peak and the dying light of evening. We're k-town dwellers now.
Last night was goodbye to:
1. The brown, impervious-to-spilt-milk carpet.
2. The path of death leading down to the clothes line.
3. Shane doing his laundry, blowing his nose, emptying his bladder. And the wildebeest. *shudder*
4. Ving and his concrete shed, his utter disregard for the environment, and his 'beautiful day! Oh you big boy!'
5. Other residents of the 'sac; Dad187, Martin, Miss Piggy, Jaffa the Ginger Ninja, Ving's mum.
And it's hello to:
1. The four children who live next door, school-aged to baby-sized.
2. Living in a suburb the size of a small town.
3. Steps. And more steps.
4. Having a backyard.*
5. Pink and blue lino like you wouldn't believe.*
It's a bit chaotic at our new digs - I've lost my mobile, have only one of each of my pairs of work shoes, and who knows where the kettle is? We have no landline yet, but the shower is awesome (the 'sac's shower was utter crap) and last night just finding some pjs for Harper was an investigation on a par with locating the survivors of Oceanic 815.
A special shout out here to Anne and Ces who braved the steps and a rather ratty Harper to help us move. We couldn't have done it without you.
*photos coming once we find the camera

News story of the week - three McDonald's branches close down

2009-10-27T15:56:00.003+13:00

The Big Mac, long a symbol of globalisation, has become the latest victim of Iceland's overexposure to the world financial crisis.
The country's three McDonald's restaurants - all in the capital Reykjavik - will close next weekend, as the franchise owner gives in to falling profits caused by the collapse in the Icelandic krona.
"The economic situation has just made it too expensive for us," said Magnus Ogmundsson, the managing director of Lyst Hr, McDonald's franchise holder in Iceland.
Lyst was bound by McDonald's requirement that it import all the goods required for its restaurants - from packaging to meat and cheeses - from Germany.
Costs had doubled over the past year because of the fall in the krona and high import tariffs on imported goods, Ogmundsson said, making it impossible for the company to raise prices further and remain competitive with competitors that use locally sourced produce.
A Big Mac in Reykjavik already retails for 650 krona (NZ$7) - twice the price of a NZ burger. But the 20 percent increase needed to make a decent profit would have pushed that to 780 krona (NZ$8.47), he said.
That would have made the Icelandic version of the burger the most expensive in the world, a title currently held jointly by Switzerland and Norway where it costs $US5.75 (NZ$7.69), according to The Economist magazine's 2009 Big Mac index.
The decision to shutter the Icelandic franchise was taken in agreement with McDonald's Inc, Ogmundsson said, after a review of several months.
McDonald's, the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, arrived in Reykjavik in 1993 when the country was on an upward trajectory of wealth and expansion.
The first person to take a bite out of a Big Mac on the island was then Prime Minister David Oddsson.
Oddsson went on to become governor of the country's central bank, Sedlabanki, a position that he was forced out of by lawmakers earlier this year after a public outcry about his inability to prevent the financial crisis.
Lyst plans to reopen the stores under a new brand name, Metro, using locally sourced materials and produce and retaining the franchise's current 90-strong staff.
Ogmundsson said it was unlikely that Lyst would ever seek to regain the McDonald's franchise, with Iceland still struggling to get back on its feet after the credit crisis crippled its overweight banking system, damaging the rest of its economy, last October.
"I don't think anything will happen that will change the situation in any significant way in the next few years," Ogmundsson said.
It is not the first time that McDonald's, which currently operates in more than 119 countries on six continents, has exited a country.
Its one and only restaurant in Barbados closed after just six months in 1996 because of slow sales. In 2002, the company pulled out of seven countries, including Bolivia, that had poor profit margins as part of an international cost-cutting exercise.
Thanks for that, stuff.co.nz

A stuck door

2009-10-21T20:07:00.003+13:00

So it's getting dark outside and I'm sitting here at my laptop again, working on my freelance stuff, but finding it hard to settle and pondering making some toast. I'm thinking about how this time next week I'll be setting up my 'office' in our new flat, and working at a desk in a room, not stuck in a corner of the dining room with an old duvet cover seperating me from the Postie who is on the other side of it watching a DVD with headphones on. I know in about half an hour he'll get up and announce he's going to bed which just kills me every time, because then the house becomes even quieter and everyone is asleep and though it's only about 9pm, it feels like 2 in the morning. And I feel like I've barely even talked to him - we're like those ships passing in the night.
Someone said to me today, 'wow, you must be exhausted', and I have to say I am. It catches up with me every now and then, and I have one of those days where I'm shoving my shoulder up against time, banging it like a locked door, feeling stuck in the same minute over and over again. There is a great deal of Groundhog Day-ness about my life right now, even though what with moving and having a job with lots of variety and people and news, things seem stagnant. I think it's just me though. I will be glad when time starts moving again and I will break down that damn door and perhaps even do a bit of knitting.

I've taken a lover

2009-10-19T19:53:00.003+13:00

I've been unfaithful to my book group. Yep, I've been reading non-book group books. You see, I work at work all day, then I work at night for a few hours and then when I get to bed I am absolutely wired and just like to stare at the wall for a bit. But staring at the wall doesn't make me sleepy, reading does. So sometimes I read a book that isn't particularly challenging, one that I can rack up lots of pages of before I fall asleep with book still in my hand and a wee bit of dribble eeping out of my mouth. And the last couple of days, that book has been Julie & Julia.
I like the idea of it - woman seeks to fufil her life by setting herself task and blogging about said task, and through that task, illuminates her life in a witty and compelling way. Hey, isn't that what most blogs are - us bloggers trying to shed light on our lives and showing off what good writers we is? And the device of having a task to do it through, it's kind of like a road trip story, or a quest. It gives the narrative a hook to hang off. I'm churning through the pages, and look forward to catching the bus home at night not just because I'm going home, but because I can read this book.
But it's leaving me a little cold. It's making me really interested in Julia Child, more than about Julie. In fact, I think I'll go to the library tomorrow and get a book about JC, once I've finished J&J. I remember watching Julia Child when I was a kid, with her enormous elabroate meals, her sloppiness, her chaos, the feeling that the stove might explode at any moment. Who knew she was in her late 30s before she learned to cook? That she was a bored housewife in Paris when cooking took hold of her, that she met her husband in Sri Lanka, that she was 6'2"?
The other thing that I'm getting out of J&J is that I really should try and blog more often. I've been pretty hopeless of late. I've decided when I've finished my current freelance work, I will try to write more in the evenings, you know, like actual creative writing. It's a scary prospect.

Five things

2009-10-19T09:58:00.006+13:00

1. It's a glorious day here in our glorious city. After weeks of storms and rain and hail and lightning and general ew-ness, it's nice to be squinting into the sun again. The harbour looks radiant.
2. I despair at people sometimes. We're capable of incredible kindness, generosity, creativity and love. And then something like the balloon boy hoax happens.
3. Sweeney came and stayed at our place on Saturday night and gave me some insight into how children are crafty and will avoid going to bed with all manner of techniques, including quibbling over the distance the bedside lamp should be from the actual bed. I can remember my Nana and I having songs and stories in bed when I was little, and how I never wanted her to leave. Just one more Amazing Grace? I also loved getting into bed with her on cold mornings and snuggling up to her Oil of Ulan-smelling skin.
4. As part of Sween's staying over, we watched Finding Nemo. I hadn't seen it before. My new motto in life is keep swimming.
5. Only one week and two days before we move out of the cul-de-sac. I will be glad to not have to listen to our downstair neighbour doing his housecleaning at 2am anymore. Not to mention his other nocturnal activities.

News story of the Week - band that I thought split up years ago splits up

2009-10-16T10:13:00.004+13:00

I'm having a hard time today with the continual dead or missing children stories in the media at the minute - the tsunami, then Aisling Symes, and now the missing 6-year-old who hopped into a helium weather tracking balloon that took off into the sky, but wasn't in it when it landed. It's too much. I can't cope with all the sadness. Perhaps that's because I'm having what's technically known as a Bad Day. I feel a bit more than 'meh'. A bit more than fed up. Just sad at the world for no particular reason other than it kinda sucks right now.
So along comes this story. My old pals A-ha, who I thought were no longer a band, have decided to no longer be a band. If this had happened 23 years ago I would have been hysterical with grief, but it's actually barely registering on my scale of sad - it's almost like light relief from it.

a-ha then ...

... and a-ha yesterday.

Five more things

2009-10-09T10:29:00.002+13:00

1. We have just signed the lease on a house with an Awesome Backyard (TM) in which I can plant some veges that might survive the winter, unlike the deep dark gully of our current yard. The front yard is all grass and quite vertical; perfect for rolling little boys down it.
2. I'm wondering when it will be safe to take my coat to the drycleaners - it's spring but feels like midwinter.
3. Kakapo are one of my favourite creatures. Especially after seeing this.
4. I am writing a story about Baby Loss Awareness Week, with the help of this book. I realised I know so many people this book would help.
5. Harper is bi-lingual. This morning he said 'aporo' as I spooned aporo into his breakfast. Sweeney on the other hand, is not. I asked him last night if he wanted more kai, and he said 'no, I want more food.' Then we had a discussion about the circumarket. He's more bi-wordal than Harper.

Five things

2009-10-05T10:23:00.003+13:00

1. I watched Koyaanisqatsi on the weekend - it isn't anywhere near as good as Baraka. I don't think a shot of a plane taxiing for three and a half minutes is art. The hairstyles were funny though.
2. Go to The Larder in Miramar. The sausage rolls are Am-ay-zing. I want to go back and try the souffle.
3. We've exhausted the amount of time we had to buy a house, so now it's back to renting. Our landlords are returning from overseas and we have to move out by the end of the month. All I can say is pfft.
4. Harper has added 'mine' to his growing vocabulary. He usually says it quite aggressively, hugging whatever is 'mine' to his chest. He's also really into shoes, and this morning put on a pair of my high heels.
5. It hailed last night and this morning, even though we're in mid-spring. Coincidentally, one of the back windows in my car won't go up.

I've been tired

2009-09-29T14:34:00.002+13:00

Sorry for the lengthy absence fans* but I've been a wee bit ill since last blogging. I've had the very fancy sounding viral labyrinthitis, which is a long name meaning big ear infection. It made me see the world a little bit wonky for going on 10 days now, made me very sleepy all the time, and there was a bit of spewing going on at various times too. But I'm on the mend now, and can see my screen without it blurring and spinning and making me want to lie down and stay very, very still. I have to say I outdid myself going to the after hours doctor on a Monday night in my pink stripy pyjamas, dressing gown and dead-as-a-doorknob slippers that should have been chucked out months ago. I wish I had video footage of it. At least I didn't disgrace myself by throwing up in the waiting area. That would have been tacky.
I have to say here that Postie and I would not have survived the week I had off work had it not been for the miracle worker known as Ange. Not once, not twice, but many times we said to each other, where would we be without her? She made us dinner, took me to the doctor, kept H occupied when we needed time out, and was generally totally A+ for Awesome.

*harper's grandmothers

Houseless

2009-09-10T22:07:00.002+12:00

So we walked away from the house, took back our offer. And frankly, I'm a bit relieved. It was a dog. Not that we really understood how much of a dog until we read the Builder's Report, aka, a list of things falling off the house or didn't meet the building code, which was quite long and made our bank manager laugh and say 'oh my gosh!' a lot.
It's back to square one, of Sundays taken up with open homes, poking window sills, avoiding slimy estate agents, Postie muttering under his breath about storage. Can't wait.

Take that, Bute Street fence!

2009-09-09T10:50:00.003+12:00

A few weeks ago, when I had spare time, I took part in a radical protest against - well, a boring fence. See here. I'm the girl in the brown hoodie, and AngeSweeney are wandering around too.

It's all happening

2009-09-07T19:32:00.002+12:00

Man. We've had an offer accepted on a house - not my dream house - but a house, and as I type, Postie is on the phone to the solicitor nutting some stuff out. It's exciting, terrifying.

And in other news, Harper had his hair cut for the first time today. It's too dark to take decent photos, so standby on that one. Postie did it with some clippers and made rather a nice job of it. Looking at photos of before, I don't know why we didn't do it sooner. H was beginning to look like a member of the Bay City Rollers.

Sky say

2009-09-02T21:15:00.003+12:00

Our good pals Leo and Deb came back to Wellington briefly to see family and made time to run riot with Harper and Sweeney.

It's hard to photograph three preschool boys when they're hopped up on fluffies.

Just another manic ... what day is this?

2009-08-28T09:54:00.003+12:00

Oh. My. God.
Things are busy. I've taken on a bit of extra work in the evenings that will keep my nights full until end of November all things going well. So not much time for the goofing off things I did in Northland last week, like daily yoga, making up songs on the guitar, knitting, going for walks, reading, having long baths, sleep ins, etc. It's just being a dull girl for a bit.
Worth it though. Not being able to knit for a while isn't going to kill me. Just make me a bit mental.
This is what my day looks like right now:
5.30am Wake up in cold sweat about how much I have to do.
6am Postie gets up, closes bedroom door so I don't hear him mooching about in kitchen
6am-6.45am Listen to Postie mooch about in kitchen. Try to convince myself I can get back to sleep.
6.45am Postie goes to work, I get up.
6.50am Have shower, use expensive eco shampoo on hair that leaves it feeling like oil slick.
7am - 7.30am Sit in a daze on beanbag wishing I were asleep. Drink tea, eat muesli.
7.3oam Harper gets up with Snuffy and special blankie in tow. Am overwhelmed with how cute his is. Make his breakfast. Watch him eat his breakfast while sitting in a daze on beanbag.
7.45am - 8.15am Get Harper ready for creche. On any given day this could involve being kicked in the face as I get him dressed, a tussle to get him into his carseat and away from his beloved trike, or a miracle - where he finds his coat and hat and brings them to me, and stays still while I put them on him.
8.30am Arrive at creche. Talk kids with other parents. Get Harper deeply involved in an activity involving vehicles before kissing him goodbye.
8.50am Arrive at Postie's work to drop car off and flirt with Postie. Sometimes he even flirts back.
9.05am Arrive at work.
9.06am - 5.06pm Save world through journalism, write top quality copy, break stories left, right and centre, and bring meaningful new ideas to the general populace.
5.07pm Walk to bottom of Brooklyn hill for a wee bit of exercise. Catch bus home.
5.30pm Greet Postie and Harper who have come to meet me from the bus. Wrestle Harper to get him back inside the house. Gaze benignly at Home and Away. Turn TV off to eat dinner. Sometimes get to eat whole meal before Harper needs to be on my lap.
6.30pm Get Harper into his bath, brush teeth for ages because watching him in the bath can be quite boring and may as well use the time productively. Yes, I'm that exciting.
7pm Get Harper into bed after a few stories. These days he is stoked to be going to be along with Mr Snuffy and special blankie. Thank the lord.
7.15pm Start second job in curtained off dining room.
10pm Call it a day and crawl into bed.

Where I've been

2009-08-26T22:48:00.006+12:00

Holidaying. In Northland. At a house not 100m from the most perfect pohutukawa-lined beach ever. I love holidays. Can you see why?
P proved himself the ultimate provider for his whanau by catching a trevally, which we ate with gusto and roast veges.
We even did the unthinkable and had Harper stay with his grandparents in Auckland for two whole nights while we were up norf. Postie and I celebrated being responsibility-free by going to bed early and sleeping late. Ragers, huh?
When H came up he enjoyed splashing about on the beach, moo-ing at the cows and doing the dishes with Monique. Yep, he's into wiping benches and mopping floors too. Gets it from his dad.

Eating with my homies

2009-08-12T13:25:00.006+12:00

Ange and Sweeney joined us at the cul-de-sac for a feast on Saturday night. And as I was putting the food on the table, I realised most of the meal was made from scratch. There was homemade pita bread, homemade hummus, homemade tztsaki made with homemade yogurt and homegrown mint, and the chicken was marinated in homemade souvlaki sauce. If we weren't in the process of finding a new house to live in, I would expect that come summer there would be homegrown tomatoes and lettuce to stuff the souvlakis with.

*super pleased*

we can't say cheese, our mouths are full

Friday Five

2009-08-07T13:15:00.003+12:00

I have come to realise that I will never:
1. Speak French fluently
2. Win an Oscar for best actress
3. Star on Survivor
4. Sustain an interest in politics
5. Have a tan

Plots and thank yous

2009-08-05T10:48:00.004+12:00

Blog posts been a bit thin on the ground recently, partly because we are just getting back into our boring old rhythym at home after weeks of feeling like we're on the edge of a cliff, and because I am up to my eyeballs in plans and plots.
If everything goes to plan *fingers crossed* I should be seeing out the end of the year having bought a house, been to Nepal, editted a seasonal section of the paper, and written a substantial work that will look magnifique on my CV. It will be crazy, with no time for swanning about of an evening with my knitting, but it will tick off a whole lot of things that I want to do before moving on to the next phase of my life. Which should involve a lot of knitting.
Man, do I sound mysterieuse. And no, none of these plans involves having another baby.

While I'm here I have a couple of thank yous to my fellow bloggers to shout out.
I just bought an awesome pair of Twenty Cent Mixture's baby shoes. They are really very good. Louise and I did a swap last year in which she gave me a pair of shoes for H and I gave her a necklace. She had made the shoes just for H, but we lost one of them on a trip to Lyall Bay, and no amount of beach combing could bring it back. So I bought another pair for a friend's baby in the UK and they are beautiful.
And not so long ago, a parcel arrived for me here at Dompost HQ from the UK. It was a huge pile of Observer and Guardian magazines that I had let slip I miss reading of a sunny day. The culprit was cunning little miss Sas, who had stockpiled a load for me. She's a lass I haven't actually met in real life, and her amazing act of kindness is all the more appreciated for it.
The bloggy gods have been good to me.

Five good things

2009-07-31T11:27:00.004+12:00

1. Being presented with a chocolate fish this morning by a rep from Snapper because it's Snapper's birthday and I had just used my card to get to work.
2. Harper sleeping last night for the first time in forever, and getting up at 7.30am with a sweet little 'darh' and a cuddle, not traumatised at all.
3. Friday, Friday, Friday.
4. Ticking off things from lists that have been really stressing me out, like getting a grant done for creche, getting a good night's sleep and getting some deadlines met.
5. Only two and a bit weeks till we go up north to Whangarei and possibly spend a coupla nights up there sans baby.